THE QUEEN laid a wreath of poppies at the Cenotaph today as she led the nation in honouring fallen war heroes on Remembrance Sunday.

As Big Ben struck 11am, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire its First World War-era guns to mark the beginning and end of a two-minute silent tribute in the heart of Whitehall. The Last Post was then sounded.

Dressed in black, the Queen laid a wreath of poppies at the memorial while Mrs May and leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn followed suit.

In keeping with tradition, the Queen was joined by senior members of the Royal Family including the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales, who also laid wreaths.

The Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Cornwall and other royals watched on from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

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Following the ceremony, thousands of veterans and servicemen and women marched along Whitehall past the Guards memorial where Prince Charles took the salute.

This year's remembrance events have been especially poignant as 2016 marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Jutland, the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War and the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the Supermarine Spitfire.

The British Army suffered almost 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Somme battle alone and more than a million men would be killed or wounded on both sides over the course of the 141-day offensive.

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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie arrive at the Cenotaph

Letters, photographs and memoirs donated by parents whose sons were killed on the Somme have been released to mark Remembrance Sunday.

The Imperial War Museums (IWM) has revealed documents and pictures commemorating soldiers who lost their lives one the Somme.

The documents originally formed part of the IWM's Bond of Sacrifice collection, dating back to the museum's foundation in 1917, and will now be part of the Lives of the First World War digital memorial to those who took part in the conflict.

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Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his wife Marina arrive at the Cenotaph

Remembrance Sunday 2016

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Advertisements in newspapers from September 1917 until April 1920 asked people to contribute photographs and biographies of their loved ones who had died in the war, and hundreds responded.

Contributions the IWM received from families of those killed on the Somme include a photograph of two brothers thought to have died in each other's arms and a farewell letter written by a soldier who died on the first day of the battle.

They also include letters from soldiers' comrades and memoirs written by parents about their children.